East of England: Lloyds Banking Group Social Entrepreneurs Programme opens for applications

Delegates at the School for Social Entrepreneurs conference at the Eastern Enterprise Hub in Ipswich where nearly £7m of funding from the Big Lottery Fund for the Lloyds Banking Group Social Entrepreneurs Programme was announced

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THE Lloyds Banking Group Social Entrepreneurs Programme – for which the School for Social Enterpreneurs - East, based at the Eastern Enterprise Hub in Ipswich, is the delivery partner in the East of England – is now open to applications.

The programme, funded by Lloyds with support from organisations including the Big Lottery Fund, is seeking to recruit 300 social entrepreneurs with ideas offering the potential to make a difference in their communities.

On offer is a place on one of the School for Social Entrepreneurs’ learning programmes, and a grant to help develop and grow the project – £4,000 for those starting up or £15,000 for an existing organisation. For details, visit /www.the-sse.org .

Lloyds Banking Group announced a five-year programme of support for the School for Social Entrepreneurs a year ago, with an initial target of supporting 100 social entrepreneurs a year.

The bank’s initial £6million of support was supplemented last November by £7m from the Big Lottery Fund which enabled the number of delivery sites across the country to be doubled from seven to 14.

The lottery funding was announced during an international conference staged by the School for Social Entrepreneurs at the Eastern Enterprise Hub in Ipswich, home of the SSE – East.